Mumbai: The Food and Drugs Administration Minister Mr Girish Bapat today directed that all the pending cases under the food safe under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act should be settled and disposed off at the earliest. He said for this hearing should be taken and Maharashtra state legal authority should also be followed up in the settlement process.
Mr Bapat said that the meeting of the administrators of the respective departments should be taken and the officers of food safety and Standards authority should also be called in the campaign. He said that the citations of High Court (Nemichand versus Rajasthan government) should be cited and the action can be taken as early as possible. He urged the administrative officer to concentrate on these pending cases and give a relief to the Businessman and traders who are in the field of food business.
He said that the cases that are pending since long should be settled and disposed off so that administration and the businessman accused in cases get a sigh of relief. He said under the special campaign, the Businessman against whom the cases are registered, should be present in person before the court and try to settle the matters. He also said that the responsibility of supplying safe and quality food products can be discharge in this manner. The first hearing in this regard was just conducted in Jalgaon under the special camp. 38 cases under the food adulteration Act by disposed of and a penalty of 7 lakhs 20 thousand was recovered as penalty from the erring businessman.
Until 5th August 2011, the food and drug administration was working under the law of prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954. After that in 2006 food safety standards law 2006 and similarly some rules and regulations came into force in the year 2011.
Under the section 16 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954, for every violation of the law, (substandard food or adulterating it by mixing something, by misbranding or by Falls labels or other deeds that are prohibited under any provision of this act or any rules made there under by an order of the foot health authority) thousands of cases are pending in various courts. Even after 5th of August 2011 this act of 1954 was used to file cases against many people engage in food business. Due to this, the workload on the courts of law, the mismatching of the presence of witnesses and accused made it further complicated. More than 5265 cases are pending before various courts in the state including that of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM),Judicial Magistrate First class (JMFC)and the Metropolitan Magistrate.
As per the provision of food safety and Standards Act 2006, cases are registered on the basis of seriousness of the violation of the law. Under this, the criminal cases were registered against the food stuff that is unsafe for consumption and it has the provision of imprisonment .Other cases were filed in the Civil Court and penalty was to be levied against the erring and accused. In this way, the classification of all the pending cases is essential and the hearing should be taken as soon as possible for settling them and disposing them off.
The proposal to this effect should be followed up with Maharashtra state legal services authority. It should be discussed by meeting with the member secretary and Registrar General of the High Court so that information regarding the cases pending under the Adulteration Act can be disposed off and settled as early as possible. This can reduce the load of courts of law and the time can be saved. Similarly the human resources of the administration can also be helped. Hence for the settlement of the cases under the Prevention of food Adulteration Act 94, special campaign has been started and all the District Courts, Session Courts are directed by the High Court in this regard.
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